Improving professional competence--the way ahead?

Globally, there has been considerable interest from the public, medical profession, and governments in ensuring that doctors are fit for practice. Appropriate accountability for the profession has become an important contemporary issue. With doubts emerging on the effectiveness of professionally led regulation, a variety of different mechanisms have been devised to ensure that patients receive appropriate and good quality care. This paper reviews regulation of the medical profession and indicates the way in which doctors in the UK are held accountable for their practice.